The Vienna Festival canceled the concert of conductor Currentzis at the request of the Ukrainians
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The Vienna Festival has canceled the concert of the Russian conductor of Greek origin Theodor Currentzis. This is stated in the statement of the organizers, which is cited by Der Spiegel And The New York Times. The performance was canceled after Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv refused to perform with Teodor Currentzis, who has Russian citizenship.
The new director of the Vienna Festival, the Swiss Milo Rau, has planned two concerts on the theme of war. Teodor Currentzis with the SWR Orchestra was scheduled to perform Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem on June 12 at the Burgtheater. On June 2, Oksana Lyniv was supposed to conduct the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in the requiem “Babi Yar” by Ukrainian Evgeniy Stankovych.
“During discussions over the past few days, it has become clear that the presentation of both concerts within the framework of the Vienna Festival is currently impossible,” the festival organizers said in a statement. According to iefimerida.gr, Oksana Lyniv “expressed dissatisfaction with the participation of her Greek-Russian colleague.”
The director of the Vienna Festival said that he respects Oksana Lyniv’s desire not to perform with Teodor Currentzis at the same festival due to the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict. “Unfortunately, this means that there is no other choice but to cancel the planned concert led by Teodor Currentzis, whom we greatly value as an artist,” the organizer said. According to him, it was not only Ms. Lyniv’s position that caused the decision to exclude Teodor Currentzis from the program; many Ukrainian musicians refused to perform because of him.
The director of the festival’s cultural program, Anke Mai, expressed regret over the cancellation of Teodor Currentzis’s performance, but noted that she understands that both Oksana Lyniv and the Kiev Symphony Orchestra would like a public appearance by Theodoros Kurentzis against Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. “Given the consequences of such a statement for Mr. Currentzis in Russia, we never asked him to do this,” Anke Mai said.
On the official website of Teodor Currentzis still posted announcement about the concert on June 12. However, when purchasing tickets, the following message appears: “During the discussions that took place after the presentation of the performances of the Babi Yar requiem-kaddish and the War Requiem, in recent days it became clear that the presentation of both concerts within the framework of the Vienna Festival is currently not possible.” .
Instead of a concert by the SWR orchestra, the Vienna Festival will present a new musical work by a student of Evgeniy Stankovic. The Vienna Festival runs from May 17 to June 23.
Theodor Currentzis was born in Athens, but worked in Russia for a significant part of his life. In the 1990s, he came to St. Petersburg to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with conductor Ilya Musin. Theodor Currentzim was the chief conductor of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater, where he founded the musicAeterna orchestra and choir, then worked as artistic director of the Opera and Ballet Theater in Perm. He created the choir musicAeterna byzantina, specializing in Byzantine music. In 2014, the conductor received Russian citizenship.
How “Babi Yar” was performed in Moscow in 2023 under the direction of Teodor Currentzis – in the Kommersant material “It’s even strange to remember now”.
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